Newcomer / Intro Just starting out

Rakaposhi · Dec 17, 2014

Heya,

I have bought ED for my son and me for Christmas. Of course, we aren't allowed to play before the 25th

, but I made sure I bought the Mercenary Edition

, so actually we could play now if we wanted. I have two questions:

1. I logged into each account and chose the Commander names, but have gone no further. Is that all I need to do to reserve the names? I haven't played the tutorials or clicked Start once logged in to the game.

2. Is there any way to organise starting in the same area of space? Same system? It would be a real shame to start in the game really far apart.

Can't wait!

Zing Freelancer · Dec 17, 2014

Rakaposhi said:
Heya,

I have bought ED for my son and me for Christmas. Of course, we aren't allowed to play before the 25th , but I made sure I bought the Mercenary Edition , so actually we could play now if we wanted. I have two questions:

1. I logged into each account and chose the Commander names, but have gone no further. Is that all I need to do to reserve the names? I haven't played the tutorials or clicked Start once logged in to the game.

2. Is there any way to organise starting in the same area of space? Same system? It would be a real shame to start in the game really far apart.

Can't wait!

Oh God please no, please oh please oh please oh please buy a new game. Do not ruin your Christmas! BUY A DIFFERENT GAME which actually allows you to play with your son. Elite Dangerous have extremely limited grouping mechanics, it does not provide any way to choose the location where you spawn. The game in generally unfinished and have a lot of issues with coop play like not being able to do missions together or sharing the rewards.

Please, if you love your son, get a new game.
Far Cry 4, The Gauntlet, Diablo 3, Magika, Borderlands 1/2/Pre-Sequel, Saint Rows 3/4, Pay Day 2, World of Tanks, War Thunder, League of Legends, The Incredible Adventures of Van Hellsing 1/2 are all good games you can play in coop, Elite Dangerous is NOT.

Calibisto · Dec 17, 2014

1. It should be. I registered my name as a backer and when I started to play in the beta it was linked.

2. While Zing is rather dramatic in his post he is right. The coop in Elite is still being worked on.
Now there is very little coop. One can fight together in Conflict Zones but that is about it.
From what I understand Frontier is working on developing 'Wings" so players can group together.
So it might be in the future, but for it is not.

Edit: There is no way I know of to start in the same region. Other than start over and hope to be placed closer together.

Alec Turner · Dec 17, 2014

Zing Freelancer said:
Oh God please no, please oh please oh please oh please buy a new game. Do not ruin your Christmas! BUY A DIFFERENT GAME which actually allows you to play with your son. Elite Dangerous have extremely limited grouping mechanics, it does not provide any way to choose the location where you spawn. The game in generally unfinished and have a lot of issues with coop play like not being able to do missions together or sharing the rewards.

Please, if you love your son, get a new game.
Far Cry 4, The Gauntlet, Diablo 3, Magika, Borderlands 1/2/Pre-Sequel, Saint Rows 3/4, Pay Day 2, World of Tanks, War Thunder, League of Legends, The Incredible Adventures of Van Hellsing 1/2 are all good games you can play in coop, Elite Dangerous is NOT.

Errr, ignore this guy's rant - Elite is absolutely wonderful and you and your son are going to love it. OK he has a slight point in that it's kind of a loner's game in many ways but you will be able to meet up and communicate in game and just sharing the learning experience and the "tales" of what you've discovered and been up to will be a terrific experience (me and my friend at work here have talked about nothing else for weeks now).

Rakaposhi · Dec 17, 2014

Thanks for the replies!

He's pretty independent so we're not depending on grouping together, although that would be good occasionally of course. My primary concern was the reserved names.

Having watched some vids it looks like it should be possible to mine together. Or will finding each other in a field prove too difficult?

Even if we just end up seeing who progresses the fastest, I'm still looking forward to it!

Calibisto · Dec 17, 2014

I myself had some problems finding a friend earlier, when we realized we were on completely different servers. He was on a 54.xx.xx.xx and I on a 170.xx.xx.xx
Once I logged in again I found him without much problems.
And I am playing from Europe and he in the States.

I don't expect problems seeing you are playing from the same house.

Rakaposhi · Dec 17, 2014

Ah, that's good to know. I often play from hotels, so will watch for that when away from home.

Razorwire · Dec 17, 2014

Group mining and combat zones are easy if you are in the same super cruise instance (if you can see each other it'll work); one of you drops on location, the other drops on the frameshift wake.

As for starting together, I recommend you start each client now, and then you fly your ship over to the other location. That way you are guaranteed to start together on the 25th and that you have both names.
Don't forget to sell your merc eagle, if you have one, before you go. You can always rebuy it at the other end.

Calibisto · Dec 17, 2014

If you're playing from different locations then I'd like to add that you don't need to be on exactly the same server.
But apparently it does need to be in the same range. So both on a 54.xx.xx.xx or 170.xx.xx.xx.

At least that is my experience in this.

carlisle · Dec 17, 2014

Zing Freelancer said:
Oh God please no, please oh please oh please oh please buy a new game. Do not ruin your Christmas! BUY A DIFFERENT GAME which actually allows you to play with your son. Elite Dangerous have extremely limited grouping mechanics, it does not provide any way to choose the location where you spawn. The game in generally unfinished and have a lot of issues with coop play like not being able to do missions together or sharing the rewards.

Please, if you love your son, get a new game.
Far Cry 4, The Gauntlet, Diablo 3, Magika, Borderlands 1/2/Pre-Sequel, Saint Rows 3/4, Pay Day 2, World of Tanks, War Thunder, League of Legends, The Incredible Adventures of Van Hellsing 1/2 are all good games you can play in coop, Elite Dangerous is NOT.

You assume though that the OP has only chosen Elite because it seemed like a cool co-op game, rather than because they're an old-timer who loved the original Elite, or really love extremely in-depth games, or really love space flight games. None of the games you've listed are really comparable to Elite.

Others have already answered the two questions pretty much as I was going to. There's a reasonable chance you'll start in the same system, a load of us all started in LH3447 on the first day. If you don't one of you can always clear the save and start again, and yes, once you've registered the commander name, even if you haven't started the game yet, that name is yours.

Araviel · Dec 17, 2014

Calibisto said:
Edit: There is no way I know of to start in the same region. Other than start over and hope to be placed closer together.

yes there is, if you create a private group before you spawn your first commanders and enter private group mode together the first time you log in whit your commanders they will spawn in the same system.

would also like to add since there has been some negative rants here about elite not having coop, private groups is just that - co-op mode.

rennarda · Dec 17, 2014

I just hope your wife/other family members are OK with completely never seeing you again all day on xmas day ! Because once you get engrossed, you'll never want to leave !

Inhumierer · Dec 17, 2014

Rakaposhi said:
I have bought ED for my son and me for Christmas. Of course, we aren't allowed to play before the 25th

You have a very masochistic mind!

Calibisto · Dec 17, 2014

Araviel said:
yes there is, if you create a private group before you spawn your first commanders and enter private group mode together the first time you log in whit your commanders they will spawn in the same system.

would also like to add since there has been some negative rants here about elite not having coop, private groups is just that - co-op mode.

That I didn't know. Thanks
Me and my friends just jumped into the Gamma and were placed all over the map.

Rakaposhi · Dec 17, 2014

Inhumierer said:
You have a very masochistic mind!

It's possible. I did get him to play the original. I must admit to showing him how "easy" it was to dock in the original game and then watching him learn how to. Old school difficulty FTW.

I will be sure to make a private group before we start, thanks a lot for all the comments!

FatHaggard · Dec 20, 2014

Rakaposhi said:
Thanks for the replies!

He's pretty independent so we're not depending on grouping together, although that would be good occasionally of course. My primary concern was the reserved names.

Having watched some vids it looks like it should be possible to mine together. Or will finding each other in a field prove too difficult?
?
Even if we just end up seeing who progresses the fastest, I'm still looking forward to it!

As a miner myself i must say having a partner will LITERALLY save your life! Good luck to both of you, mining alone is dangerous business!
As for your question, it shouldn't be any trouble finding each other, just agree on a system and installation use your scanners to detect each other from afar and link up.

Fly safe commanders! o7